Tenth Planet Discovered

[Toastburner B]

Something for all you space-nerds out there (like myself):

They found a 10th planet beyond Pluto.

Originally Posted by JPL.NASA.GOV

A planet larger than Pluto has been discovered in the outlying regions of the solar system.

The planet was discovered using the Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory near San Diego, Calif. The discovery was announced today by planetary scientist Dr. Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., whose research is partly funded by NASA.

The planet is a typical member of the Kuiper belt, but its sheer size in relation to the nine known planets means that it can only be classified as a planet, Brown said. Currently about 97 times further from the sun than the Earth, the planet is the farthest-known object in the solar system, and the third brightest of the Kuiper belt objects.

"It will be visible with a telescope over the next six months and is currently almost directly overhead in the early-morning eastern sky, in the constellation Cetus," said Brown, who made the discovery with colleagues Chad Trujillo, of the Gemini Observatory in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and David Rabinowitz, of Yale University, New Haven, Conn., on January 8.

Brown, Trujillo and Rabinowitz first photographed the new planet with the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope on October 31, 2003. However, the object was so far away that its motion was not detected until they reanalyzed the data in January of this year. In the last seven months, the scientists have been studying the planet to better estimate its size and its motions.

"It's definitely bigger than Pluto," said Brown, who is a professor of planetary astronomy.

Scientists can infer the size of a solar system object by its brightness, just as one can infer the size of a faraway light bulb if one knows its wattage. The reflectance of the planet is not yet known. Scientists can not yet tell how much light from the sun is reflected away, but the amount of light the planet reflects puts a lower limit on its size.

"Even if it reflected 100 percent of the light reaching it, it would still be as big as Pluto," says Brown. "I'd say it's probably one and a half times the size of Pluto, but we're not sure yet of the final size.

"We are 100 percent confident that this is the first object bigger than Pluto ever found in the outer solar system," Brown added.

The size of the planet is limited by observations using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which has already proved its mettle in studying the heat of dim, faint, faraway objects such as the Kuiper-belt bodies. Because Spitzer is unable to detect the new planet, the overall diameter must be less than 2,000 miles, said Brown.

A name for the new planet has been proposed by the discoverers to the International Astronomical Union, and they are awaiting the decision of this body before announcing the name.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

Well, there you are. According to a British newspaper, it's going to be called Xena.

...And, in my humble opinion, whoever came up with that name deserves to be shot.

[Meister]

Not calling it Rupert is nothing short of a crime against humanity.

[Skyshot]

Oooh, I so had that joke. It's just as well, I was about to say "Russell," and we know what Adams thought of that name.

Seriously, there's going to be a slew of HGttG references now. What will this do for astrologers? Will one sue NASA for screwing things up?

Or even better -- will horoscopes be unerring now? Think about it. That'd be awesome!

[Deathosaurus Wrecks]

"planet" being used rather loosely here i think. an "object larger than pluto" hell, isn't the moon larger than pluto?

[Melfice]

Yes, but the moon revolves around Earth.

This object revolves around the sun, rather than another planet, therefore it is ruled out that it is a moon of Pluto.

[Lockeownzj00]

"What will this do to astrologers?"

They'll either realise that they believe in total bullshit or they'll rationalise it and move on to another "spiritual" belief.

This is kind of interesting, I guess. Just goes to show there are tons of hurtling balls of rock (and other stuff...hey, screw you, it's my factually-incorrect metaphor!) in space that we've yet to discover.

[Archbio]

They'll either realise that they believe in total bullshit

Pluto/Yugoth didn't manage to do that, so I doubt this one will. Especially considering that the definition of the word "planet" seems less and less solidly fixed.

[Lockeownzj00]

Well, that's why I added "or they'll rationalise it." :P

[Danath]

yay another planet and who really cares what they call it its just an object/planet in space that just happens to be within our galaxy and if it is revolving around the sun as they say then well then its another planet and what does that have to do with anyones beliefs spiritual or otherwise.?

[ApathyMan]

Hey, at least there's some good news about this discovery.

Right now, as of this moment... there are about a dozen contemporary classical composers wasting their time trying to crank out a mediocre addition to Gustav Holst's greatest work, "The Planets"... and isn't that what really matters?

Also, it's good news to know that they didn't accept those other recently discovered rocks as planets - the ones that were smaller than Pluto.